Invested In Climate

When it comes to climate tech, there are a lot of new kids on the block, investors that have brought billions of dollars of new capital and have helped fund climate innovation we badly need. 

It’s rare that you find folks who have been investing in climate tech for over a decade, let alone two decades. So I was thrilled to sit down with Neotribe’s Swaroop Kolluri who goes by Kittu, a long-time climate investor who sees enormous opportunity in the intersection of different technologies. We talk about several of his investments – from solar to wave energy, to energy storage, to risk resilience – and more generally about the role of AI and other advanced technology in changing the game for climate tech. 

Lots to learn and think about in this one. Enjoy! 

• [2:24] Neotribe & the opportunity to invest in climate right now
• [4:16] How is climate investing different today & what’s exciting
• [7:50] Heliogen as an example of breakthrough climate tech
• [9:15] How is AI showing up in investment opportunities like CalWave
• [10:37] Opportunities beyond energy generation
• [12:24] Other opportunities for AI & climate tech
• [16:05] Other exciting technologies with transformative potential
• [20:31] Kittu’s thoughts around time to market & types of risks [21:47]
• [21:47] Kittu’s leap to Neotribe from NEA
• [23:24] Gaps in the investment space & the type of capital needed
• [25:39] Recent federal investments & impacts on early-stage startups
• [27:04] What else needs to happen to support climate tech
• [29:10] Common barrier to startups
• [30:25] Advice for today’s climate tech leaders

• Neotribe
• Bloom Energy
• NEA
• Heliogen
• Idealab
• CalWave
• Energy Vault
• Metalenz

• Connect with Kittu on LinkedIn

• On LinkedIn
• On Twitter

• Sign up for our Newsletter
• LinkedIn
• Instagram
• Twitter

Have feedback or ideas for future episodes, events, or partnerships?

Get in touch!

From the growing demand for climate-positive investing, new funds, new approaches for financial advisors, and entirely new platforms for managing one's investments are taking off. This is just the beginning. It's hard to imagine how different investing might be as tens of trillions of dollars transfer to younger sustainability-motivated generations.

Today’s conversation is with two people working to change how people invest today to participate in and support the unique opportunity that is the climate transition. Pete Krull is a Partner & the Director of Sustainable Investments at Earth Equity Advisors, a firm he founded almost 20 years ago. Bonnie Gurry is Co-Founder and CEO of GreenPortfolio, a new startup aimed at creating an online financial management platform like Mint.com focused on climate-first investing. We talk about their backgrounds, their companies, the trends, opportunities and evolution they’re seeing in climate investing, and much more. Enjoy! 

• [3:09] Bonnie’s background & how she came to start GreenPortfolio
• [4:22] Pete's background, Earth Equity Advisors & the problem they’re helping solve
• [7:29] Advantages of working with a firm of Earth Equity Advisors’ size
• [8:22] What makes Earth Equity Advisors unique right now
• [8:59] GreenPortfolio, the problem they’re addressing and how the platform & product works 
• [10:54] GreenPortfolio’s climate scorecard & what's involved in considering investment opportunity
• [12:37] How far along GreenPortfolio is
• [14:15] Earth Equity Advisors’ free impact x-ray of one’s investments
• [19:46] How does Earth Equity Advisors’ process differ & offer more sustainable options
• [21:20] Responses to investing in the traditional energy sector
• [25:18] Earth Equity Advisors’ benchmarking & how it works in practice
• [27:33] What is it that GreenPortfolio allows users to do after auditing their investments
• [30:15] What would make a credit card worth recommending
• [32:27] Investing in renewable energy
• [35:51] How the investment landscape has been changing & what’s coming next
• [40:07] The backlash to ESG

• Earth Equity Advisors
• GreenPortfolio

• Connect with Pete on LinkedIn
• Connect with Bonnie on LinkedIn

• On LinkedIn
• On Twitter

• Sign up for our Newsletter
• LinkedIn
• Instagram
• Twitter

Have feedback or ideas for future episodes, events, or partnerships?

Get in touch!

Fossil carbon is not just burnt for energy. It’s also used as an ingredient for millions of everyday products. But what if, rather than extracting new fossil carbon from the ground, the carbon could be sourced from waste and kept in circulation. 

That’s exactly what a company called LanzaTech is doing. For almost two decades LanzaTech has been using a synthetic biology process to recycle carbon waste and create new products. They went public earlier this year and provide a fascinating example of a climate tech company with a bold vision for transforming how our material world is built. Perhaps that’s why they were recently recognized by the prestigious Earthshot Prize. 

In this episode, I’m joined by LanzaTech’s Chief Sustainability Officer Freya Burton and Chief Science Officer Zara Summers. We talk about the growth and evolution of LanzaTech, their effort to create a circular economy of carbon, their technology, partners, and much more. This episode will push your thinking in some interesting ways. Enjoy.

• [3:36] Freya’s background & what she was doing before LanzaTech
• [4:52] Zara’s background & what she was doing before LanzaTech
• [6:23] LanzaTech & the problem that it’s aiming to solve
• [8:13] Finding stuff to do with emissions vs. eliminating them
• [11:13] The overall scale of environmental impact that LanzaTech is targeting
• [13:20] How LanzaTech’s technology works
• [16:47] Partnerships for removing carbon emissions 
• [19:29] How has the technology evolved over the years
• [21:16] How AI is involved in the approach
• [23:11] Who are current customers & what kind of partners is LanzaTech seeking
• [26:25] The pulse of the marketplace
• [28:44] Who is it for & why is it critical
• [30:21] How LanzaJet is going
• [32:41] Benefits & expectations of climate policies 
• [35:24] How EarthShot was helpful to LanzaTech
• [36:31] What has changed since LanzaTech went public
• [37:40] The industry in 5-10 years
• [41:43] Call to action for listeners

• LanzaTech

• Connect with Freya on LinkedIn
• Connect with Zara on LinkedIn

• On LinkedIn
• On Twitter

• Sign up for our Newsletter
• LinkedIn
• Instagram
• Twitter

Have feedback or ideas for future episodes, events, or partnerships?

Get in touch!

We all know that addressing climate change means eliminating greenhouse gas emissions, but have you ever stopped to wonder how we know how much we’re actually emitting? The truth is we haven’t really known, but instead rely on estimates. These estimates fail to provide very specific data about where exactly emissions are coming from, when, and what investment and policy choices might be most effective in turning them off.

Today’s episode focused on an incredibly ambitious initiative called Climate TRACE, a collaboration of over 100 organizations that use a dizzying number of satellites and remote sensors to actually detect and track emissions at a global level. Vice President Al Gore is a Co-Founder of the initiative, along with Gavin McCormick who runs a nonprofit called WattTime. We’re joined today by Gavin who explains how Climate TRACE works, the Vice President’s role in the effort, their theories of change, surprises, progress, and hopes for the initiative, and much more. Climate TRACE is positioned to play a central role in improving transparency and planning at a global level, and I was thrilled to get to learn more about it through this interview. Enjoy.

• [3:18] Gavin’s background & the climate work he’s leading today
• [3:49] WattTime & what it’s doing today
• [4:45] Climate TRACE & how it got started
• [6:28] Why is detailed emissions mapping so important?
• [10:59] Tracking theories of change
• [12:11] Surprises & leading theories of change for Climate TRACE
• [13:11] How this dataset can be helpful for Chief Sustainability Officers & those in sustainability roles
• [15:01] Climate-positive investment opportunities through Climate TRACE
• [15:44] Vice President Al Gore’s role in the initiative
• [16:10] How has AI been helpful to Climate TRACE & its pursued outcomes
• [19:02] What does it take to work with so many groups in practice & why different groups are needed?
• [21:47] Funding from Google.org & contributions from other companies
• [23:04] What has Climate TRACE achieved so far
• [25:21] The biggest learning from Climate TRACE yet
• [26:44] Surprises on the technical side around data collection & analysis at scale
• [28:34] What comes next for Climate TRACE
• [33:36] Replication of Climate TRACE’s model in other spaces
• [34:43] What’s next for WattTime
• [36:58] How policy can be accelerated through data
• [39:35] What can listeners do to help

• Climate TRACE
• WattTime
• UC Berkeley
• TransitionZero 
• Former Vice President Al Gore
• Google.org

• Connect with Gavin on LinkedIn

• On LinkedIn
• On Twitter

• Sign up for our Newsletter
• LinkedIn
• Instagram
• Twitter

Have feedback or ideas for future episodes, events, or partnerships?

Get in touch!

The EV revolution is well underway, and we’re clearly in the midst of a massive transition away from gas-powered cars. Consumers are opting for EVs not only to end their costly dependency on fossil fuels, but also because EVs are often just better cars.

For fleet managers, the calculus is different and more challenging. Switching to EVs requires not just an upfront investment, but also operational changes to deal with charging. This is an important problem to solve given the vast number of intensively-used, fleet-owned vehicles on the road. 

We’re joined today by Tenni Theuer, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of Spring Free EV, a startup that provides EVs as a service to fleet managers across the US, as well as one of her investors, Rob Day, Partner and Co-Founder at Spring Lane Capital. Don’t be confused by the names of Spring Free EV and Spring Lane – they’re two separate companies, but they are united by their shared excitement for the enormous opportunity to electrify vehicle fleets. We talk about the size of that opportunity, Spring Free’s product and traction, how EVs can transform fleets from depreciating assets into revenue opportunities, and much more. So buckle up – sorry had to go there – and enjoy.

• [3:36] The market & need that Spring Free EV is filling
• [5:50] The size of the fleet market & why is it Spring Free EV’s focus
• [7:47] How many companies have fleets & how many cars are owned by fleets
• [8:06] How Rob sees the market as an investor
• [11:19] The holdback on CNI fleets
• [12:11] Cutting the cost of EV ownership in half for commercial fleet owners
• [15:38] EVs & the title as the better car
• [18:38] How Spring Free EV stands out
• [21:56] The most important milestones that Spring Free EV should be pursuing
• [23:31] Cars, customers & capital
• [25:44] What will it take to get to the gigaton goal
• [26:21] How Spring Free EV’s work will change
• [29:28] How & when Rob got involved in climate investing & how he sees the market evolving
• [32:50] Spring Free’s unique approach & why it's needed for climate companies today.
• [35:52] What else is Rob excited about right now
• [38:04] What else needs to happen to accelerate EV adoption

• Spring Free EV 
• Spring Lane Capital

• Connect with Tenni on LinkedIn
• Connect with Rob on LinkedIn

• On LinkedIn
• On Twitter

• Sign up for our Newsletter
• LinkedIn
• Instagram
• Twitter

Have feedback or ideas for future episodes, events, or partnerships?

Get in touch!

I love talking about food waste. It’s one of the biggest contributors to emissions and something that we all contribute to every day. Reducing how much food goes uneaten is, of course, a big part of the solution, but there’ll always be organic waste. If it sits in a landfill, it’ll emit methane and miss the chance to be used as a resource.

Today’s episode focuses on an Israeli startup that sees organic waste as a precious resource. HomeBiogas turns waste into fuel onsite to be used for heating and cooking. They’re off to the races selling their products for a range of applications – from backyards to hotels – and they’re just getting started. We’re joined today by HomeBiogas’ founder Oshik Efrati, and one of their key investors Ron Gonen from Closed Loop Partners. We talk about both guests' backgrounds, the challenges and opportunities to create a circular economy, anaerobic digestion, how HomeBiogas turns waste into energy, the opportunity they see, and much more. Here we go.

• [3:03] Oshik’s background & what led him to launch HomeBiogas
• [4:51] Ron’s experience in recycling and waste & what led him to founding Closed Loop Partners
• [7:08] Closed Loop Partner & the ways it’s working to eliminate waste
• [9:06] The impact of waste on climate & why solutions are needed
• [10:32] How Oshik sees the problem & what his company is working to solve
• [11:43] How HomeBiogas is approaching the problem
• [13:44] Anaerobic digestion & what else makes HomeBiogas’ systems possible
• [16:09] The potential that Closed Loop Partners sees in HomeBiogas as an investor
• [17:43] Oshik’s view of the market opportunity
• [18:19] Measuring climate & environmental impacts
• [19:51] HomeBiogas’ traction, different applications & go-to-market
• [21:06] The process of converting waste to energy in buildings
• [22:25] The toilet market & what HomeBiogas is able to do with human waste
• [24:33] What’s most critical to HomeBiogas’ success
• [25:39] Partnerships that HomeBiogas has developed & is looking for now
• [28:06] The residential market in the US
• [31:19] The next few years from a business & impact perspective
• [33:03] How does this space compare to other circular economy verticals
• [34:22] What else is needed for realizing the circular economy

• HomeBiogas 
• Closed Loop Partners

• Connect with Oshik on LinkedIn
• Connect with Ron on LinkedIn

• On LinkedIn
• On Twitter

• Sign up for our Newsletter
• LinkedIn
• Instagram
• Twitter

Have feedback or ideas for future episodes, events, or partnerships?

Get in touch!

Most of our episodes go deep into specific opportunities to address climate change through new technologies, investment opportunities, advocacy, and policy. This episode takes a step back to look at climate and impact investing, how they’ve evolved in recent years, and where they’re heading. Not only have climate and impact investing exploded in recent years, but they’ve also become more mature spaces with more opportunities, tools, nuances, and complexity. 

So I was thrilled to zoom out for this conversation and speak with a true pioneer and leader in this field, Jenn Kenning. Jenn is the Founder and CEO of Align Impact, an independent specialized impact and financial advisor to high-net-worth families, individuals, and foundations. Align is an Inc. 5000 company and Jenn is one of the most recognized voices in impact investing and wealth management. She was selected for Private Asset Management’s “50 Most Influential Women in Private Wealth,” and her firm recently earned global recognition as one of the top 200 impact companies of 2023 by Real Leaders. So sit back and enjoy a true expert’s take on climate investing past, present, and future. Here we go. 

• [2:46] Jenn’s background & work at Aligned Impact
• [4:00] How has mission-line investing changed over the years?
• [6:06] Examples of how intersectionality is creating opportunities for investors
• [9:16] How clients’ investments compare today vs. in the past
• [11:48] Opportunities Jenn is most excited about in the climate tech space
• [14:33] Strategies that investors should & shouldn’t consider
• [17:12] How is ESG playing out
• [21:48] The role of finance in accelerating our response to climate change: what's working & what needs to change
• [23:56] Systemic change & what it looks like when it's working 
• [25:57] Gaps in finance AI
• [27:55] Why it’s hard for individual advisors to weave climates or social priorities into portfolios
• [29:19] How retail investors can support changes & what else needs to happen
• [31:13] The future of climate investing

• Align Impact

• Connect with Jenn on LinkedIn

• On LinkedIn
• On Twitter

• Sign up for our Newsletter
• LinkedIn
• Instagram
• Twitter

Have feedback or ideas for future episodes, events, or partnerships?

Get in touch!

Decarbonization requires not only eliminating fossil fuels as a main source of energy, but also replacing them as key ingredients in objects we use every day. If you want a crash course on just how much our material world depends on fossil fuels, check out the book How the World Really Works by Vaclav Smil. It’s a fascinating, though sobering read, and one of Bill Gates’ favorite books. 

Today’s episode focuses on pigments, a great example of fossil fuels hiding in plain sight. Take a look around you right now. See any objects that are black in color? Replacing the petroleum in the black pigment used in millions of objects with a carbon-negative material is the focus of an innovative startup called Nature Coatings. Today we’re joined by Nature Coatings founder and CEO Jane Palmer and one of her investors, Dan Fishman, a General Partner at Regeneration.vc. I loved this conversation as it really pushed my thinking about the work needed to truly transition from fossil fuels, and the enormous opportunities for innovators who can lead the charge. Enjoy.

• [3:20] Regeneration.vc & how Dan came to work on climate
• [5:37] Jane’s background & how it led to Nature Coatings
• [7:39] Carbon black & why it’s a problem
• [9:08] How BioBlack is made & how it compares to carbon black
• [11:09] The scale of the carbon black problem
• [11:59] How is BioBlack a carbon-negative product
• [14:00] Dan’s perspective on why Nature Coatings is an attractive business
• [16:01] Nature Coatings’ biggest priorities right now
• [17:02] Nature Coatings’ traction, customers, companies they’re looking to reach & status
• [19:05] The future that Jane envisions for Nature Coatings
• [21:29] Rethinking ingredients in everyday products
• [24:11] Others in the petroleum-replacement space
• [25:06] Other exciting opportunities in the space from the investor perspective

• Nature Coatings
• Regeneration.vc

• Connect with Jane on LinkedIn
• Connect with Dan on LinkedIn

• On LinkedIn
• On Twitter

• Sign up for our Newsletter
• LinkedIn
• Instagram
• Twitter

Have feedback or ideas for future episodes, events, or partnerships? Get in touch!

If you’re listening to this podcast you clearly care about climate change and it might bother you that your 401k is likely investing in fossil fuels. Many employers have yet to offer sustainable 401k plans, and it sends billions of dollars of capital into fossil fuels every year. Even ESG funds often invest in fossil fuels.

Today’s conversation is about making it easier for everyday investors to invest more sustainably. I’m joined by Zach Stein, Founder of Carbon Collective, a startup offering green 401ks and other sustainable financial products, and by Shaandiin Cedar, an investor at Powerhouse Ventures who invested in Carbon Collective. We talk about Zach and Shaandin’s backgrounds, ESG investing and the need for more sustainable investment options, Carbon Collective’s potential and traction, and what else is needed to finance the kind of climate progress we need. There’s lots in this one that’ll get you thinking. Enjoy.

• [3:15] Zach’s background and how he came to start Carbon Collective
• [4:34] Shaandiin’s background and work at Powerhouse Ventures
• [5:34] Background on Powerhouse
• [7:31] Powerhouse’s investment thesis & companies they are looking for
• [8:37] Carbon Collective’s theory of change
• [12:59] Carbon Collective’s unique approach
• [16:00] Fossil fuel divestment
• [17:10] Carbon Collective’s business potential & why Powerhouse invested
• [21:29] Carbon Collective’s master plan & how it’s going
• [24:53] What’s critical for success
• [26:59] Status of Carbon Collective’s returns & customer base
• [30:43] What Carbon Collective is aiming to accomplish in 12-18 months
• [31:45] Sustainable 401ks & addressing market friction
• [36:53] What else needs to happen to accelerate climate action?

• Carbon Collective
• Powerhouse Ventures 

• Connect with Zach on LinkedIn
• Connect with Shaandiin on LinkedIn

• On LinkedIn
• On Twitter

• Sign up for our Newsletter
• LinkedIn
• Instagram
• Twitter

Have feedback or ideas for future episodes, events, or partnerships?

Get in touch!

We often hear about public commitments to reach net zero, but not the nuance, choices, costs, and complexity big companies face when working to decarbonize their global operations. Behind the scenes, any company that is making climate commitments has teams of people focused on decarbonization strategy, carbon accounting, and reporting to figure out how to ween their companies off of fossil fuels and emission-heavy practices in the most effective and cost-effective ways. It’s a laborious task that requires a ton of data and analysis.

This is where SINAI Technologies comes in, a start-up focused on helping companies understand and analyze their decarbonization choices. Today we’re joined by Maria Fujihara, founder and CEO of SINAI, and Lauren Densham, who leads ESG and impact initiatives at Energize Ventures, one of Sinai’s recent investors. We talk about SINAI’s concept of decarbonization intelligence, why their technology is needed, its impressive growth, its plans for the future, and what this all means for any company working to decarbonize. I learned a lot in this one and imagine you will too. Enjoy.

• SINAI Technologies 
• Energize Ventures

• Connect with Maria on LinkedIn
• Connect with Lauren on LinkedIn

• On LinkedIn
• On Twitter

• Sign up for our Newsletter
• LinkedIn
• Instagram
• Twitter

Have feedback or ideas for future episodes, events, or partnerships?

Get in touch!